In case you didn't know, today is the beginning of Banned Books Week. This annual event is the brainchild of the folks at the American Library Association, and their purpose in this is to bring attention to the fact that censorship is on the rise in our country.
You probably didn't know that last year alone, there were nearly seven hundred attempts to remove books from public or school libraries. Wanna take a guess at what book topped the list as being the one most challenged? Go ahead.
Okay, it's actually a series of books. The "Harry Potter" books, by J. K. Rowling.
I shit you not. And for the second year in a row, no less.
These books beat out all sorts of other stuff, including the old standby, Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler. Why? Because they're satanic, of course.
Of course, they're not satanic. To the best of my knowledge (I haven't read the books), Satan isn't even alluded to at all. But the books are about a young boy who's going to school to become (gasp!) a wizard! Eeeeeeek!
Magic. The very word sends paranoid chills down the spines of the nutball branch of Christians. Poor Harry Potter is only the latest in the line of innocent fun to be branded satanic by these cretins. When I was a teenager, it was Dungeons & Dragons. Later, it was the card game, Magic: The Gathering. Even Pokemon has been painted with the scarlet "S."
And let's not omit Wiccans and other pagans who practice what they call magick. I wonder how many Christians realize that Wiccan "magick" is not a whole lot different than Christian prayer, when it comes right down to it. The only real difference is that prayer is always to an outside source, whereas magickal "spells" are quite often aimed inward, to draw the power from oneself.
Not that Christians would care. It's the word itself that sets them on edge. "Magic(k)" could mean exactly the same thing as prayer, and it would still be satanic, in their eyes. Harry Potter is becoming a wizard? Wizard, warlock, witch… it's all the same… it's all from the devil.
Coincidentally, tomorrow afternoon I'll be at the third annual Pagan Pride Harvest Festival, in Fair Oaks, California. I'll be there, surrounded by folks who practice this sort of "magick," selling and signing copies of my book, Wish You Were Here, which (among other "offensive" things) features this same sort of "satanic" stuff.
If you're as opposed to censorship as I suspect you are, thumb your nose at these clods by reading a banned book or two. Meanwhile, I'll write books that maybe one day will be on this infamous list. I think that's a goal worth shooting for.
